Slow start costs Tall Blacks against Italy

Another day, another salutary lesson for the baby Tall Blacks in Europe.

This one came at the hands of the crack Italian team at their own four-nation tournament in Trento this morning, with Nenad Vucinic's inexperienced touring squad crashing to their third defeat in four outings on their European sojourn.

The New Zealanders spotted their hosts a 15-point lead (29-14) after just one quarter and thereafter played pretty competitive hoops before going down 70-88 to an Azzurri outfit featuring two NBA stars and rated among the top tier on the Continent.

"It's probably a fair reflection of where the two teams are at right now," said Vucinic after the match. "I don't think we're at the level of the Italian team just yet. We had a slow start, and they got on top of us early. [But] we did manage to prevent the score running out on us."

The Tall Blacks were once again paced by their world-class shooting guard Kirk Penney who poured in a game-high 28 points (7/20 FG, 6/12 3pt), with Saints point man Lindsay Tait chipping in with 10 points to be the only other offensive contributor of note.

But there was little else of significance on the scoring front from the Kiwis, highlighting one of their main deficiencies on this tour.

"There's no doubt Kirk is the main scoring threat for us and we build our game around him and manage to give him a lot of shots," said Vucinic.

"He's a great offensive player and our main scoring option. It would have been nice if we had more players in double-figures but the reality is we're not there yet."

The Tall Blacks actually performed pretty credibly against an Italian side featuring NBA players Andrea Bargnani (Toronto Raptors) and Marco Belinelli (Golden State Warriors). They won the second quarter 18-17, dropped the third by just four points and finished the final stanza locked 19-19 with the slick Europeans.

The Kiwis again played hard, and actually won the rebounding battle 38-34, but paid a high price for their turnovers - 23 all told - and only managed to shoot a lowly 36 per cent from the floor (20/55 FG). Their conversion from close to the hoop - they were just 10-of-32 on two-point attempts - illustrated how much they struggled to deal with the Italians' length.

"The Italians were a well-run team, with some extremely gifted individuals, and fundamentally very sound," said Vucinic. "With the team we've got and the [lack of] experience, we have to admit Italy are a little bit out of our league at the moment.

"But the guys didn't give up, kept coming back and held the deficit that was there after the first quarter. I think these guys are buying into the culture -- we don't over-respect anybody, we believe we can take these teams on. It's not easy but we're used to that."

The New Zealanders struggled to contain Belinelli in particular, the Warriors guard notching 20 points (8/13 FG) and dishing out seven assists. Overall the Italians shot a respectable 32-of-67 from the floor, demonstrating the quality looks they got against the scrambling Kiwi defence.

But all is far from doom and gloom for the Tall Blacks as they continue what is essentially a development tour with their final game of this tournament against Canada tomorrow, before closing out with two matches against Belgium and one against Finland.

Though the inexperienced nature of the squad - he has seven players with less than a season of international basketball under their belts - means inconsistency is inevitable, Vucinic feels progress is being made.

"You're never happy with a loss but we are quite happy with where we are and with the overall performance tonight," said the Tall Blacks coach. "I think we are definitely seeing an improvement."

There is good news on the horizon too, with veteran forward Pero Cameron and athletic big man Craig Bradshaw both on schedule to return for the series against the Boomers. Bradshaw is a definite and Vucinic confirmed Cameron was training well on his previously injured ankle and looked likely to take the court against the Aussies.

Tait, who had his best match of the tour, said the Tall Blacks were struggling to cope with the European referees' interpretations, but felt the side was improving with every outing.

"We're a very young team and the schedule is extremely hectic. But we're really seeing improvement on a day-to-day basis," he said. "We're now looking forward to going out and finishing the tour off well and continuing to make improvements towards that Australian series."

Tait described the Canadians as "beatable" after they had also been well handled by the Italians (91-69), though Vucinic said the way Canada had bounced back to take care of business against Portugal today suggested they would be a handful.

"They're very talented, very athletic, and though they struggled against Italy, tonight they came back and beat Portugal by about 20-25 points... we're expecting probably as tough a game as we had tonight."

Italy 88 (Marco Belinelli 20, Valerio Amoroso 18),

New Zealand 70 (Kirk Penney 28, Lindsay Tait 10).

1Q: 29-14; HT: 46-32; 3Q: 69-51.

- © Fairfax NZ News